Smart Playlists not syncing correctly to iPhone/iPad with iTunes Match

Also have this problem since I purchased the iPhone 5--smart playlists do not sync properly. It appears that the play data is not being transferred back to iTunes. Even the smart playlists within iTunes do not seem to reflect the number of song plays recorded on the iPhone.

I have most of my smart playlists set to "least recently played" and they are not updating with new songs either in iTunes or on my iPhone when I play songs on the iPhone.

FIX THIS APPLE!!!!

The workaround worked.

But the fact that I had to resort to it is complete bollocks.

Hey Logan

Thanks a lot, that's exactly it. My new iPhone was obviously set to just take the music from the local library (how odd), now that I changed to take the music from the library on my Mac, everything works perfectly!

This was the problem! I was pulling my hair out. I have no idea why Apple sends these out of the box with the setting to only show the music that is stored locally on the specific device. I had no idea why my playlists in my itunes library were showing something completely different than my ipad which was showing something completely different than my iphone.

However, it still is not responding to the settings in iTunes. I have it set to syns music only in my purchased and recently added playlists and after changing the music settings to My Library all of the playlists show. Maybe this is a feature. I cant complain because at least the live updating is working.

This whole thing seems a bit ridiculous as this all worked with my 4s and ios 6. However, my ipad 3 and iphone 5s all have some funky stuff going on.

Thanks Logan!

My God. Is there one problem with iOS 7 and Mavericks that I can be spared not to experience!

Can't believe years later smart playlist sync is still a nightmare in iTunes with iOS devices like iPhone iPad.

In my case I even deleted a smart playlist Top Unplayed 30 Months from the ones to be synced to the iPhone. Synced. Changed the name and logic of the playlist in iTunes to Top Unplayed 24 Months. Added it back to sync included ones. Synced. And iPhone STILL has Top Unplayed 12 Months. Fail!

I see some suggestions to click on the Music icon, More and then change libraries but I do not even see that on my iPhone 4S 64GB. Nothing about it in the iTunes iPhone settings either.

Completely fed up with this. And, no, I am not using Cloud music etc.

This really needs to get resolved. Thanks all.

Just in case this helps anyone: I was experiencing this same issue, with much frustration. Songs that were in smart playlists in iTunes were not syncing to the same playlists on my iPhone. Tried everything and anything. Finally performed a hard reset on my iPhone and tried syncing again...and now the playlists have synced and updated correctly. Worth a try...hope it works for you.

(And c'mon, Apple...fix this already!)

How does one set your IOS device to take music data from the Mac? My problems is that every playlist I've ever developed, including those deleted, shows up via Match on my iPhone.

I recently decided to update playlists I've had for a couple of years. I have separate playlists for my iPad, iPhone, and iPod. These playlists do not include purchased music; i.e., I do not check the box for purchased music because I do not want all purchased music in my playlists. I have over 3000 songs in the one main library (including over 1000 purchased songs in 6 years.)

Two days ago, after I created a new playlist for my iPhone, I SYNCed the iPhone via a hard connection to iTunes on my iMac. A couple of observations: 1) the playlist I created has 1805 songs; 2) when I click on the iPhone device in iTunes, it shows 1810 songs; 3) when I look on the phone, there are 1958 songs.

A quick check, without checking each and every song, shows that the additional songs have a cloud by them like they are place holders for the songs. I'm guessing that means they are in iCloud and ready to download onto my iPhone.

I don't care if they exist as a place holder with a cloud by them, but, they play as if they are on the iPhone and already down loaded.

I've tried the erase and reset method. I've tried deleting the playlist and recreating the playlist from scratch. The extra songs are still there.

How can I create a playlist that consists of only the 1805 songs I want on my iPhone?

I fixed my syncing problem, much like the ones others have described here. I had to do a hard reset and then set up my phone as a new phone, with no back up to get all my settings. The apple genius checked into my system crashes by looking at some diagnostic while I was in the store and suggested that this was the only way to correct the problem. I backed up apps that have external accounts, made sure all my photos were synced to computer already and then went for it. Had to deal with all the settings and accounts like a new phone, but so far my playlists have been working for the past 2 weeks since the fix.

Good job Logan, this nailed it! 🙂

Logan Logs On wrote:

Ok, this worked for me. My PLAYLISTS all stopped working after IOS 7.0.

I tried a couple fixes. Anyway, what finally worked was a setting on my iPhone.

Music Icon / More / Shared. There's a red checkmark in front of one of my "libraries". I moved the checkmark to my other "library," synced my phone with my iTunes, and now my playlists on my iPhone are syncing again.

Hope this helps!

I've followed most of the solutions posted here and none worked but, as advised by an Apple advisor, this did by essentially deleting everything in iTunes Match in the cloud and starting again.

On iTunes :-

• Sync up with Match.
• Turn Match off.
• Close iTunes and restart in a new (& therefore empty) library by opening up iTunes when clicked on the Options key.
• Sync up with iTunes Match and again and it will look like there are bunch of songs in the cloud which could be downloaded.
• Delete all of these songs.
• Sync Match again - now there are no songs in iTunes and no songs in Match.
• Close and reopen iTunes again with Opt key pressed and select the original library which bring back all your original content.
• Turn on Match and sync (which takes a time).

On the phone :-

• Turn off Match.
• Delete all music (from within Setting, General, Usage)
• Wait until the iTunes sync is finished and turn Match on again.

It has taken 9 months to get there but at last all is working fine. The whole process took around 30 minutes.

Worked for me too! Thanks!

Edit: Contrary to my initial perception of sucess, didnt work. The first chance my ipad got to wifi sync the smart lists were broken again. I've resorted to copying contents of smartlists to a standard playlist so it will actually sync and stay on the ipad. 😐

I don't have a paid match subscription so unfortunately the solution two posts prior isn't an option.

Creating a new Smart playlist that simply pointed back to the original smart playlist fixed this for me:

Steps:

1. New: Smart Playlist

2. Playlist: is: "name of original playlist"

3. Ok

4. Now sync the new Smart Playlist with your Iphone.

No need to sync the original Smart Playlist, but don't delete it from itunes.

I tried the above and I cannot get my music back on my iphone. Itunes match is not matching anything at all. So I turned it off on the phone, clicked to sync all music on itunes and synced the phone again via cable. Tick still there besides sync, but nothing synced. Turned off on off on and gave up and turned everything off on computer and phone. This after 3 days by the way.

Had a few duplicated non-matching lists. Sorted that out, synced the two via cable with match off still on both. Everything perfect, then I turned match back on on the computer. Two hours later, still not matched and duplicate lists appearing again.

Why do I need itunes match? I am canceling my subscription. Maybe I will try it again in a a year or two, but for the moment it is seriously buggy. This issue here is just one of many I have encountered.